


The Forest of a Thousand Eyes

by ohayohimawari



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Alt Verse, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Forests, Gen, Gods and Monsters, KakaYama Week 2019, Minor Violence, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Protective Uchiha Itachi, Sharingan, Storytelling, Uchiha Itachi Being a Good Brother, Uchiha Massacre, forest spirit au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-08 20:45:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18902329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohayohimawari/pseuds/ohayohimawari
Summary: "Chiyo poured a cup of tea from the kettle before settling into a chair near the fire. She cleared her throat and began to weave words into a magical spell that transported Jiraiya in all but body to the time and place of her tale."





	The Forest of a Thousand Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for KakaYamaWeek 2019; prompt: Forest Spirit AU  
> I do not own these characters; I’ve had a wonderful time exploring them.
> 
> Join [The Kakashi Lounge Discord Server](https://discord.gg/fxyw3eB)   
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> -at least 16 years old  
> -able to play nice with others in a multishipping community

It was nearly dusk on the third day of traveling since Jiraiya had last passed through a village.

Three days of eating the portioned leftovers from the last hot meal he’d had, and now it would be the third night of sleeping on the cold, hard ground. Jiraiya had counted on the ability to supplement his meager rations by fishing, or with fruit, mushrooms, or nuts that he usually found easily while on the road. But he had come to barren, unforgiving land, and he still had a ways to go.

Jiraiya reached the top of a hill which afforded him a grand view of what lay beyond him and saw two things of note. Less than a mile away stood a structure which, as much as he wished it didn’t, looked quite uninhabited. On the edge of the horizon was an enormous forest.

It helped to ease the disappointment at seeing the abandoned structure. “A forest that size is bound to have game, kindling, and a softer ground than what I’ve slept on these last few nights,” Jiraiya said to himself. “It will be nightfall before I reach it, but perhaps the moon will shine brightly enough for me to find some comfort at the edge of it.”

He set off again, quickening his pace. As he neared the structure, he spotted a sign hung over the door that named the place _The Plotting Puppet_. “So, you were a tavern and lodge once,” Jiraiya spoke aloud. “It’s a pity you aren’t still. I could’ve done with a meal and a bed.”

He stopped in his tracks when he came to the window, and found that the inn hadn’t been abandoned at all. The proof stood on the other side of the window, where an elderly man could be seen wiping the counter in front of him. Jiraiya let out a hearty laugh, pulled the door open, and went inside.

“It’s lucky for me that you’re still here!” Jiraiya announced his arrival.

“You say that now,” the elderly man wheezed and chuckled as he pointed his knobby thumb at the price list that hung on the wall behind his shoulder.

Jiraiya sucked in his breath through his teeth, then whistled it back out again. “You charge a hefty fee, friend.”

“You should call me Ebizō before you call me friend, friend.” The elderly man tossed his cleaning rag in the sink. “How else would you expect us to stay in business just so a rare traveler such as yourself could be, as you say, lucky enough to find us still here?”

“True.” Jiraiya’s shoulders slumped a little, but he sat at the counter just the same. “And before you call me friend, Ebizō, you may call me Jiraiya, or your customer for a drink and a meal.”

The elderly man tottered towards a door behind the bar and pushed it open slightly. “Sister, we have a customer that has ordered dinner.” Then he turned back to the bar, plucked a glass from behind it and filled it from the only tap before setting it in front of Jiraiya.

Jiraiya swallowed a foamy mouthful of what he’d been offered. Even though he hadn’t made a choice, the drink he’d been given was rich and refreshing and whet his appetite. Regardless of the cost, he was glad to have it. An elderly woman emerged from the kitchen, carrying a tray laden with a large bowl of steaming stew, a plate of warm sliced bread and utensils. Jiraiya’s teeth swam in his mouth at one whiff of the delicious aroma, and once again, he couldn’t regret the price of it.

“It’s nearly nightfall Jiraiya, are you certain you won’t take a room?” Ebizō asked.

“I think I’ve parted with enough of my money to keep your inn open until the next traveler comes,” Jiraiya said as he stirred the stew. “I’ll test my good luck further in the forest.”

The elderly woman gasped so sharply that Jiraiya looked up at her even as he held a spoonful of stew to his lips. Her eyes were opened so widely that the creases around them had stretched smooth. “Take my advice, you’ll be wanting a room,” she spoke low and solemnly. “That is the Forest of a Thousand Eyes. You would do well to avoid it at any time, and especially at night.”

“That’s a rather unfortunate name for such a magnificent forest,” Jiraiya blew on the spoonful of stew as he looked at her soberly. “How did it come to be known as such?”

The elderly woman turned her gaze to the window. “It’s unlucky to tell stories during the day, but we’re near enough to the night I suppose. Let me put a kettle on the fire, and then I’ll tell you.”

After she had shuffled away and set the kettle on the fire, Ebizō turned to Jiraiya. “My sister Chiyo is a talented storyteller, and these days, it isn’t often that she has an audience. I’ll give you another drink on the house if you would sit by the fire and humor her.”

Jiraiya nodded that he would, and the kettle began to hiss by the time he had finished his supper. He took a chair across from the fire and Ebizō brought him another drink as promised before he returned to his post behind the bar.

Chiyo poured a cup of tea from the kettle before settling into a chair near the fire. She cleared her throat and began to weave words into a magical spell that transported Jiraiya in all but body to the time and place of her tale.

“It is a story from once long ago, and a long time it was. It was a new story then and an old story now. I am here now, I wasn’t there then.  If I were there then, I should have no stories at all.

“It was then that these lands belonged to the Uchiha clan; all, as far as the eye could see, the horizons were the hedgerows.

“The Uchiha bore the keenest eyes in all the world. They saw and knew what to plant and when, as well as what to harvest and when. It was said that they could spot a blight from years away. As such, the Uchiha possessed the wealth of the earth.

 “At the edge of the lands stood a vast, bountiful forest; ever-teeming and untouched by the ravages of age. To this place came the old and grizzled goblin Danzo, who was so ugly, there was no power at all to make him handsome. He was not to be made fun of, however. He was not be taken lightly and never to be underestimated. It was in that forest that this gruesome monster came to dwell and practice the black arts.

“He coveted the keen eyes of the Uchiha. ‘Why should they have every good thing while I have nothing?’ Danzo moaned and grumbled his bitterness and jealousy as he stalked the clan. Every move of every Uchiha between the cradle and the grave was watched by this unnatural monster, and his hatred for them grew.

“There came an evening in which a raven knocked at the windows of all the Uchiha houses, disturbing the dark, quiet hours from sunset to sunrise. None paid it any heed though, and slept soundly and calm, without a care for the warning that it would be an evil day.

“Before noon the next day, a stranger came to the main household. The good Uchiha woman met him first. He was a terribly thin and scraggy gawk of a man, so she took pity on him. She made him welcome, promised a place for him at the evening meal, and began to prepare a feast instead of a simple family fare.

“When the head of the clan returned he found the stranger alone in his home. ‘Where is my wife?’ he asked, and the stranger replied, ‘She’s just gone out to drain the potatoes for the supper she invited me to.’ Uchiha, seeing the man was as skinny as a rake, shared his wife’s compassion. They waited and waited, but she was never returning, so they went out in search of her.

“They walked out into the waning daylight, and the stranger said, ‘I’ve never seen such large and plentiful fields as the fields of the Uchiha. It is a shame for you that you are so blessed while I am so cursed.’

“The Uchiha looked up at this and found the stranger had bodily vanished. On the ground where he’d stood the moment before, lay a broken pot and potatoes strewn on the ground, long gone cold.

“A shivering wave of fear gripped the Uchiha, and his hair stood on end like the bristles of a pig. ‘Ah, you evil creature,’ he shouted, and though his keen eyes penetrated the twilight, his wife was lost to him.

“All that night the dogs howled pitifully; a weak and mournful singing in a melancholic minor key. Just before the grey dawn broke over the fields of the Uchiha, there was heard the most terrible sound. It was a thin, shrieking cry, somewhere between the scream of a woman and the screech of an owl. It woke all the Uchiha; chilling the blood of even the bravest of them.

“From then on, the Uchiha were taken. Some went in search of the missing, claiming they could hear the voices of those who were lost on the wind. Although they were sent off with prayers of protection uttered by their clan members’ trembling lips, the hopeful seekers never came home. Night after night, the terrible, unnatural screams grew greater in number, until there was a multitude of them. The Uchiha that remained in their homes were woken by this horrific choir and came to know it as the manifestation of the sounds of death. Those poor few that were left suspected each other, and feared for themselves.

“As the days and nights became weeks, and the weeks became months, the Uchiha clan’s numbers dwindled until only two brothers remained. The elder, Itachi, out of love for the younger, Sasuke, set out one night to face the wrath of the forest, armed with only a rope and his determination to protect his brother.

“Itachi reached the forest and, to help him face whatever unknown horror that waited there, he bound himself to the first sturdy tree he met. The ravens came to him and pecked at the rope that held him fast. He whispered to the birds, begging them to save his brother and not himself. Itachi pleaded with them to deliver his beloved brother to the safekeeping of the Green Man, whom we now call Tenzō, and to tell the god all of what had happened there.

“The ravens heard Itachi’s wish and were moved by it. They flew in all swiftness to where the younger brother lay asleep and right into the house, plucking him out of bed. They hastily soared high into the night sky, before Sasuke could free himself from their talons to chase after his older brother.

“By morning, the flock of ravens arrived at the home of Tenzō. They set Sasuke down, and made such a ruckus of cawing, ‘Dan-zo! Dan-zo!’ until the Green Man himself came to see what the fuss was about.

“He knew the language of the birds and bade them tell him all. The ravens told him about the monster that had come to the forest on the lands of the Uchiha. Tenzō was well acquainted with the goblin Danzo, having chased him out of many forests for his harmful meddling. Knowing that whatever befell the Uchiha would be most terrible, he settled the bewildered and grief-stricken Sasuke inside his home with food and drink and every comfort he could give to the boy, before returning to the ravens and their tale.

“‘What about this monster, then?’ Tenzō asked the ravens.

“‘Their eyes! Their eyes! He’s stolen their eyes! He first took those of the good Uchiha woman; ripped them right out of her head and the poor woman died! The orbs went blood red from the violent parting, but Danzo took them for his own just the same. This wasn’t enough for the goblin though, he feared the pilfered, damaged eyes would soon go blind, and so he vowed to have the eyes of all the Uchiha! Alas, the boy in your home is the only one left of the whole clan,’ the ravens lamented.

“‘The only one left of _all_ the Uchiha?’ Tenzō was horrified. This was indeed an unforgivable atrocity. ‘But Danzo has only two sockets for eyes himself, what more could he have done with the eyes of the other fallen Uchiha?’

“‘The trees! The trees! He’s embedded every bloody pair of eyes in the trees for safekeeping, cursing the whole forest! For the spirits of the Uchiha, nothing more than shadow wraiths now, remain there, twisted by their cruel deaths. And what’s worse, their captor Danzo forever promises to make them whole again, which is surely a lie, if only they do his bidding. He charges them to bring any that come to the forest to him, so none that enter may escape to tell of the tragedy that has befallen the Uchiha. He’s made an army of the wretched creatures who, in their blindness, scratch and scramble among the trees at any living thing that crosses their path. Every night that they are denied that which they long for, they prey upon whatever poor soul they’ve captured; envious of their life and sight, having been robbed of both, themselves. Then they cry out their agony, in the most fearsome wails you’ve ever heard.’

“Tenzō, enraged, growled ferociously, ‘Something must be done to end Danzo and now.’ However, the Green Man, as a being of birth and renewal, was forbidden by the gods to bring any life to an end.

“He turned to the ravens, ‘You’ve done well to bring the Uchiha boy to me, and to have told me of the doom of his clan, but I must ask you to do something more. Go and fly, high, to the Divine House of the gods. Tell them I’ve sent you and repeat what you’ve said to me. I’m certain they must send a great fighter from among them. Go now, and so shall I and we will meet again at the forest on the Uchiha lands.’

“The ravens flew faster and higher than they ever had before. Tenzō, though he set out on foot, took majestic strides and arrived at the forest the ravens had told him of, well before nightfall.

“Where once had been the abundant farmlands of the Uchiha, were now withered and unkempt grasses and weeds. As Tenzō approached, he made out the stationary, forlorn figures of the scarecrows in the fields. Their tattered clothing quivered in the wind, the only movement in the lifeless landscape.

“Tenzō cast his gaze to the forest and found an irregular twitching in the shadows there. He knew such movement couldn’t come from any creature of this world, and therefore supposed them to be the wraiths. He stood and watched in horror as they desperately clambered every which way in the forest. He tore his eyes from the ghastly creatures and searched the trees themselves.

“Tenzō shook with fury when he saw how many trees of the forest had been defiled by the stolen, bloody eyes of the Uchiha. He turned his face upward to the skies and let out a mighty, anguished howl.

“The heavens answered him with distant thunder, like loud murmurs of anger. It seemed even the stones of the earth roared when suddenly the clouds parted and gave way to the shining soldier of lightning, Loucetios. A swirling mass of black ravens trailed behind him.

“Fearless and strong, noble and brave, the divine warrior dropped to the forest beneath him. He ran fast, drawing his brilliant, sizzling blade of lightning itself, and began to cleave his way through the wraiths. They uttered such cries as Tenzō had never heard before. The ravens had spoken the truth of these terrible shrieks; louder and lasting longer than any worldly creature could hold its breath.

“This brought Danzo out to the fray. ‘Get him! Bring him to me, and you shall have what you want,’ he commanded his army of shadow wraiths.

“The abominations rallied at this and went after Loucetios in a very threatening fashion. They encircled him, overwhelmed him, scrabbling at him with their long, skinny fingers. Tenzō ran to the forest to aid him, then stopped short when the warrior cried out in pain, for one of the wraiths had punctured his right eye in the frenzy.

“The breath was stolen from the Green Man’s breast, and his mind quickly turned over thoughts of how he, the life-bringer, could help to take one away, even though he’d been forbidden to do such a thing. He slammed his open hand to the ground and sought for anything that would obey him.

“The trees that Danzo had tainted refused him, so Tenzō felt through the earth to what lay behind him in the fields. He found remnants of the natural energy of the neglected farmland and pulled from it, dividing and scattering it elsewhere.

“The rustling was remarkable, churning through the fields. Then the ground began to shake and tremble and heaved the scarecrows from its surface. They turned to attention for Tenzō’s orders, but he shouted to the struggling soldier of lightning, instead. ‘You, who have been known as Loucetios, I offer up soldiers and name you anew as their commander, _Kakashi_.’ The Green Man turned to the sprouted soldiers and instructed them, ‘He is your master, not I. Go to Kakashi and protect him.’

“The scarecrows shot up and lit down on the ground again, boldly leaping across it to their commander’s aid. They clashed with the wraiths, and an almighty battle ensued; full of fierce yells and fiendish screeching.

“From within, the newly-christened Kakashi charged for Danzo before the goblin could recover from the shock. But with one eye gone, his perception lacked, and the skillful hand that clutched his sword of crackling energy missed the monster by a breath.

“Kakashi stumbled, and a wraith overtook him. Near as he was, Tenzō reached to pull the twisted soul off of the shining soldier. The shadow creature held fast, however, hissing loud enough for the pair to hear, ‘I was Itachi, and I’ll freely give to you one of my eyes, for Danzo has not yet placed them in the trees. I will do this only if you swear to use it to watch over my brother in my place.’

“Kakashi swore that he would, and Itachi’s wraith led Tenzō to where his stolen eyes were hidden. The ravens bore down on Danzo so that he could not interfere, could not escape while the Green Man placed the blood red eye in Kakashi’s empty socket.

“The army of scarecrows kept the wraiths at bay, and the ravens circled Danzo, croaking with rage and trapping his arms with their talons. A look of something like fear settled on Danzo’s ugly features, and he stood stiff and stark. Kakashi charged at him again with the keen sight of the blood red eye from the Uchiha. This time, his aim was true, his hand was sure when he struck and hollowed out the monster’s chest with his blade of lightning.

“All at once, a silence fell over the forest. The wraiths retreated, slinking into the shadows. A chilled pallor crept over Danzo’s face as he gurgled, and a torrent of blood, black as ink, burst forth from the mortal wound. He then fell down dead at Kakashi’s feet.

“The ravens and the scarecrows became the most unlikely allies and kept the cursed creatures from pursuing Kakashi and Tenzō beyond the forest. The pair made their way to the Green Man’s home and the boy that the shining soldier had sworn to protect in exchange for an Uchiha’s eye. Before the forest was out of his sight, Tenzō lamented, ‘This good land has been ruined, and will be forever plagued by this wretched forest of a thousand eyes.’

“Such is my tale, and you may take it to heart, or not. I only know what I heard, and I heard what was told. Never let it be said that the truth should get in the way of a good story.”

Chiyo drained the remaining contents of her teacup and leveled her eyes upon Jiraiya, who still sat rapt with attention.

“It is believed that the wraiths of the Uchiha remain there to this day, still blindly seeking to make themselves whole again. Many travelers come to this inn before they attempt to enter those woods, and every time I tell this story. Rare it is that one should dismiss my tale, and proceed on to the forest. On the night that follows such occasion, the unnatural wailing can be heard as far as this inn. We know then that it’s useless to hope for the poor fool to have survived their wrath. Be warned, for if _you_ should choose to chance it, you can be sure it’ll be the worse for you too.”

Jiraiya’s eyes lingered on Chiyo as her last warning echoed in his mind. He turned his face to look out the window. Seeing that it had gone well and truly dark, he made his decision. “I think I’ll take that room then.”

“Good man,” Chiyo raised her hand and beckoned for her brother to arrange Jiraiya’s stay, and to show their guest to his room.

When Ebizō returned downstairs, he found Chiyo had locked up for the evening and was drying her teacup with a towel. “We can thank that story of yours for keeping us in business all these years,” he chortled.

Chiyo cackled, “Aye, and the travelers can thank it too; for the burden of their wallet is a little lighter when they set out on the road again.”

 

** The End **

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] The Forest of a Thousand Eyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20110189) by [ohayohimawari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohayohimawari/pseuds/ohayohimawari)




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